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Eyes are great: I have two. I also like spoons. But if you want a consistent coffee dose for great espresso or pour-overs, a precise scale is a true way to go with mild inconvenience.
I can still remember a time when to weigh my coffee beans each morning, I placed a little dosing cup on top of a digital scale and then pressed a button on the scale, and then waited a second or so for the scale to display. Empty out the coffee beans before pouring into the dosing cup. In October 2024, I think it was – I didn’t think it was a serious disadvantage. This is exactly how coffee scales work.
But perhaps they don’t need to. Over the past year or so, a few coffee brands have developed the simple idea that a dosing cup and scale can be combined into one device. Trigger the lightbulb on the forehead and the bluebird on the shoulder. Perhaps the most elegant of these is the subscale, Singaporean coffee brand Subminimal (also the maker of Our dear Dudh brother)
The subscale is a cup of black-on-black soup that will hold about 60 grams of coffee and has a tenths-of-a-gram scale at the base. Since I got it, the device hasn’t left my countertop—and it’s made me enjoy my morning coffee ritual a little more.
Keep it simple
Key to the subscale’s appeal is its stark simplicity. The craft coffee world is new and full of complex and sometimes confusing benefits. Once a humble tool, the coffee scale has become a home base for all manner of coffee wonky. The Fellow Tally Pro (8/10, Wired recommends) will do the math for you, simul-tabulating recommended water weights for ideal brewing ratios. Bluetooth-enabled Acaia Pearl S Will track your drink brewing time and your water flow rate, as well as music playing time.
None of the subscales do.
It’s a cup. It’s a lightweight, crisply minimalist cup with a feather-sensitive scale on the bottom that measures the exact weight of what’s inside. No Bluetooth, no apps, and no special learning curve It takes up very little space on my counter and looks nice there.
